Listen up, wireless industry. If you promise users high-speed mobile Web access — and your network actually delivers — subscribers will flock to your product. Ask Clearwire. An average Clear service user consumes more than 7 Gigabytes of data per month, says Clearwire, which delivers access at speeds, it claims, that are up to four times faster than those available for laptops from cellular service companies. Clear allows people to plug a tiny card into a laptop's USB port to surf the Web. ..

Nokia’s cell phone market share in 2009 wasn’t as big as the company previously announced. Nokia said its products accounted for 34% of the global market for cell phones, compared with 38% previously announced. The company blamed a flood of Chinese and fake phones -- devices often marketed under a brand close to Nokia's but manufactured by others. The revision underscores the rising occurrence of so-called gray-market products, which are typically made by small Chinese start-ups and sold ..

By Guest Blogger Suzanne Robitaille Ah, video and search. Frank Sinatra said it best: Try, try, try to separate them – it’s an illusion. Here’s proof of that: Speech Technology. This week, Google sealed the deal on video search capabilities for its YouTube portal, saying it would provide auto-captions for all of its uploaded videos using proprietary Google's Speech Technology. Google’s initiative, piloted in November, began with a handful of partner channels including PBS, Stanford ..

Seeking startup funding may soon get easier. A group of venture capital firms led by Andreessen Horowitz on March 1 unveiled a Web site www.seriesseed.com designed to streamline the way startups apply for seed funds, cutting the number of documents young companies need to fill out. The Web site, formed with the help of startup lawyer Ted Wang, contains 30 pages of free documents entrepreneurs can fill out to apply for $300,000 to $1.5 million of initial funding. Typically, such documents run ..

Based in Chicago ever since it was founded in 1928, Motorola is contemplating a move to California, according to co-CEO Sanjay Jha. When Motorola splits in two next year, Jha said he may transplant the handset and set-top box units to Silicon Valley. "We'll go where that talent is, and right now, that looks like California," Jha said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. This makes a lot of sense: Software acts as the biggest differentiator for cell phones and other gadgets nowadays. ..

Wireless call quality is getting worse, according to a new study. "....reported call quality problems have increased considerably in 2010," according to the Feb. 18 report from J.D. Power & Associates. Out of 100 calls placed, 13 experienced some problems, up from 11 six months ago. In particular, the number of reported dropped calls has increased to six per 100 calls, up from four six months ago. The cause: Smartphone use is surging, putting strains on networks and resulting in static on lines ..

MetroPCS has hired several advisors to explore a potential purchase of rival Leap. But can this combination work? The two companies appear to fit well together. They operate in different markets, so a merger would vastly increase the combined company's coverage area (the two already have an agreement that lets one's customers place calls when they are in the rival's territory). They could shave costs by combining certain operations such as billing and customer care. "We believe PCS's board and ..

Android operating system for smartphones has more than doubled its market share in the U.S. between September and December, according to comScore's survey of more than 30,000 consumers aged 13 and up. Android's market share rose from 2.5% in September to 5.2% in December, while BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Microsoft and Palm lost ground in the U.S. smartphones market, according to comScore. Developed by a consortium of companies lead by Google, Android has gained traction thanks to the ..

Google is taking steps to address customer support problems that cropped up soon after the release of its Nexus One, a phone that Google currently only sells online. On Feb. 8, Google began providing phone support in addition to existing efforts to solve problems through online forums. Until recently, customers who had problems or questions -- and wanted to talk to a customer service representative -- had to call the phone’s maker, HTC, if their questions concerned the hardware. Or they had ..

Shock jock Howard Stern likely gave Sirius XM executives a shock on Feb. 8, when he told his radio listeners that he is considering leaving Sirius to become a judge on 'American Idol' when his lucrative Sirius contract expires at the end of the year. A few weeks ago, Stern also said he'd been approached by terrestrial radio executives who want him to work for them. Radio giant Clear Channel recently told Bloomberg BusinessWeek it might be interested in hiring Stern. By disclosing these ..

After retrenching for five consecutive quarters, sales of cell phones returned to growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, reports consultant IDC. In that period, mobile phone sales rose 11.3%, and vendors including Nokia, Samsung and LG shipped 325.3 million units worldwide. Full-year sales were still down 5.2%, to 1.13 billion handsets vs. 2008, according to IDC. IDC analyst Kevin Restivo called the rebound "dramatic." Yet, some vendors failed to benefit from this dramatic growth spurt. Take ..

On Jan. 27, Apple said it will soon make available a version of its iPad tablet computer able to run over AT's wireless network, as long as you pay $15 or $30 a month for service. The device could usher in the era of more people paying wireless charges for multiple mobile devices. In other parts of the world, paying for multiple mobile devices is already commonplace. In Italy, people often own several phones, one for calling and one for messaging. And Americans should follow suit. In a few ..

Does Apple's tablet computer, the newly announced iPad, live up to the hype? There's no doubt Apple fans will flock to the device, with its svelte build and 9.7-inch color screen. But Steve Jobs' confirmation of the long-rumored device was more striking for what wasn't announced than what was. The iPad is designed to access the same applications available for iPods and the iPhone on Apple's popular App Store. There's even software that will automatically re-size existing applications for better ..

Ad spending by wireless companies is going through the roof. Sprint Nextel's ad spending might have hiked 40% in 2009 over 2008, according to Jan. 22 report from Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett and TNS Media Intelligence. It now adds up to 4.4% of Sprint's revenues -- double the level of its peers. Yet, whether Sprint's aggressive marketing has paid off is debatable. "The astronomical growth in ad spending by Sprint is not translating into increased gross additions," Moffett writes. ..

Auction site eBay is flooded with listings for Google Nexus One, which went on sale on Jan. 5. While Google sells the phone without a contract for $529 , dozens of optimistic eBay sellers are trying to resell the gadget for as much as $1,000. As of Jan. 14, a number of eBayers were peddling these smartphones for a much more realistic $300 or so , and I've even seen a price as low as $212. There were more than 300 Nexus One devices listed for sale. By comparison, the site offered 1,519 listings ..

In an effort to get Skype onto more mobile phones, on Jan. 13 Skype appointed a new chairman. Miles Flint, who has served as an advisor to one of Skype investors, Silver Lake, and used to be president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. The appointment likely signals Skype's increasing determination to make further inroads into mobile, where it's not had as much traction as hoped. Several years ago, Hutchison Whampoa began offering 3 Skypephone . Skype has also made the service available as ..

Google sold 20,000 units of its new Nexus One smartphone in the first week since the phone was introduced on Jan. 5, estimates Flurry, which tracks applications loaded onto new mobile devices. At first glance, that may not seem like much. Apple sold 1.6 million iPhone 3GS devices in the first week. Motorola sold 250,000 Droid handsets in the first week they became available last November. But here's a difference: iPhone carrier AT and Droid carrier Verizon Wireless have spent hundreds of ..

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime says don't count on Nintendo introducing an update to its hit Wii videogame console, or new system, in the coming months. Sony and Microsoft plan to challenge rival Nintendo's dominance of the current console generation with add-ons they hope will deliver a more sophisticated take on motion control than the motion-sensing technology in the three-year-old Wii. But Fils-Aime, in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, said: "We are confident the ..

On Jan. 6, Qualcomm announced that accessories maker mophie has built an antenna to catch Qualcomm MediaFlo TV's programming into its cases for the iPhone and iPod touch. The move will allow Qualcomm to sell its TV service while bypassing wireless service providers, which haven't been as successful as hoped in pushing the service thus far. Carriers like AT and Verizon Wireless have long offered the MediaFlo service for select phones carrying Qualcomm's antennas, but it's not taken off as fast ..

Fewer people shopping for smartphones were interested in buying Apple's iPhone in December than in September, according to a new ChangeWave Research survey . Last month, 28% of more than 4,000 people surveyed were planning to buy an iPhone in the next three months. That's down from 32% in September. What happened? Some of the decline in consumer interest could be due to the fact that the latest iPhone model, released over the summer, is getting older, and many people who wanted to buy it have ..